A New Generation of Rockers by Dylan Bowker Hello,to everyone at OWW.com I'm writing this because I have something that I would like to get off my chest.There has been one tandem of today that has really caught my eye(and no it isn't Big Show and Kane) and that is the cruiserweight duo of Paul London and Brian Kendrick the former Spanky.A while ago I took the time to start watching the WWE computer show,Velocity and London and Kendrick have really impressed me.To me they have a sort of Rockers quality to them.The whole Small,High-flying underdog duo that you get behind to pull off that win but they just can never seem to reach the big one.They also are like magic in the ring as a duo pulling off breathtaking double team and high flying moves out of nowhere.

For a while though it just seemed like this excellent duo would be limited to the well kept secret of those lucky few watching velocity until on december 2nd,2005 they got a chance to show their skills to the SmackDown! audience in a battle royal with a chance at the WWE tag team championship on the line.Needless to say they put in an impressive showing outlasting lots of other established teams even the former-tag champs before Kendrick got eliminated but even though they didn't get a shot at the belts they still showed everyone who they were and what exactly they were made of that we the velocity faithful had known all along.

Kings of the Mountain - by Tanner R. ([email protected]) I've read a lot of articles on this great site that criticize Jeff Jarrett and Triple H for their arrogance, backstage politics, and long (and frequent) title reigns. But has anyone really seen the plus side of these? As a matter of fact, they're the reason I've managed to keep watching for three and a half years. This article will explain how their similarities credit both organizations, and how they're simply the most entertaining guys out there. Both men are infamous for their backstage politics. This has to do with the fact that both wrestlers are related to the owner. Triple H is the son-in-law of WWE Owner Vince McMahon, and Double J is the son of TNA promoter Jerry Jarrett. It is very well know that people whom don't appease them usually are reduced to jobber status. I'll admit that this makes me sick, but that's another column. Let's think here. I doubt Stephanie McMahon is dumb enough to just let Triple H have the title over and over without thinking about the fans. She's not Kevin Sullivan you know. Now Jeff Jarrett, on the other hand, is being a complete and total a**shole, because he's the head booker. Now you may be asking, "Tanner, you might be right about the politics, but they're boring and embarrassing to watch" Let's get something straight here. In my opinion, Trips and Double J work their butts off to entertain the fans, and they continue to impress me on the mic. I honestly don't care if they have a Sammartino reign, as long as they are allowed mic time. They can be funny, offensive, serious and vicious on the mic. And another thing, they both have very good skills in the ring. They may not be God-like submission men like Kurt Angle or Chris Benoit, but they're good for what they do. Both have proved that they deserve to be champion, and that they can main event any PPV. Their title reigns are impressive, and very entertaining to say the least. So there you have it. Two men who no doubt have made an impact in this business with their attitude, skills and impressive title reigns. To some of you smarks out there, this might sound like a total kiss-up article to Triple H and Jeff Jarrett; but it's merely exclaiming how they are just two guys who just happen to be incredibly talented and have risen to Super-stardom. So I end this long article by saying Paul Michael Levesque, Jeff Jarrett, I respect you for you're dedication to this business.

Tajiri - A Little Respect for a Veteran and Former Champ - by Adam Stodden I have just watched the tape of the Sunday Night Heat which featured Tajiri's last match. Tajiri debuted in the WWE in 2001. He is a three-time Cruiser Weight Champion. He is a former World Tag Team Champion, as well as a former WWE Tag Team Champion (who can forget his ladder match with Eddie Guerrero against Team Angle at Judgment Day 2003? A great match!). He is a former United States Champion. He held both the ECW Television Championship and the ECW Tag Team Championship on separate occasions. The creative team at WWE didn't know what to do with Tajiri. His loose grasp on the english language probably didn't make for the greatest promos aside from comedic ones. He never became a serious contender for major straps, and never reached 'icon' status. He didn't deserve to receive the fanfare that someone like Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels etc will get when they hang up the boots. He was, however, a very talented worker. No-one with the resume of Tajiri deserves to leave fans by jobbing to Gregory Helms on the B show. Tajiri wasn't jumping to the TNA. He had just signed a 3 year contract to stay on, but had to choose his family first and made the tough decision to return to Japan. He's not going to end up wrestling for McMahon's direct opposition. Okay, so maybe there's a storyline going on in Raw that didn't allow time for his last match to be shown there, but why couldn't Tajiri beat Helms in his last match? It's not like Helms is being majorly pushed at the moment, and Tajiri jobbed to Triple H (for ol' times sake) at the Raw before, another job in the long line of jobs that Tajiri's been reduced to in the last year. Yes, I am a Tajiri fan, and maybe I'm the only one that cares. I just believe that former champions and four year veterans (that could have become seven years, had circumstances been different) deserve a better send off. Tajiri, I'm gonna miss you!

ROH MADE ME A FAN AGAIN!!! - by Orlando O'Neill Hello, I'm 16 years old n I've been watching wrestling for almost 14 years. In, the past couple of years since the demise of WCW and ECW, there hasn't really been any other promotion that has caught my eye. I"ve tried to watch WWE, but I can't stand the long and lagging promos and horrible writing. Seriously, if i wanted to watch soup operas I would stay home during the day and watch All My Children, but its too bad that the WWE is turning into that. I started to watch NWA TNA when they held thier weekly ppv's, but it's hard for me to watch Jeff Jarret every week come out on top. Im a huge fan of the X Division, and other talent in the company such as AMW, Abyss, Team Canada, etc. Theres one promotion for me that stands out over the rest tho and thats RING OF HONOR. I found one of their first dvds in a FYE. Out of curiosity I bought it, and after I saw Low Ki vs American Dragon, I was hooked. I went to thier website, looked at thier history and did all my research on the company, and from that point I decided ROH is what wrestling should be. If only Bret Hart and Dynamite Kid were in thier primes now, because they would fit perfectly in an ROH ring. If you want to see, great technical wrestling, great ariel wrestling, special attractions from all over the world, I'm telling you now there is wrestling out there and its called RING OF HONOR!

Let's Hear It For The Old School - by Marcus Riley The day was May 23, 1999. For many fans of wrestling, it was the saddest day in the sport's history. It was on this day, that Owen Hart fell 78 feet from his harness to the ring below. When Owen left, the Attitude Era of the World Wrestling Federation went with him. Later that year, the WWF decided it was time to go corporate. A new show, SmackDown, arrived in late April. In October, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. publicly shared stock. Shortly after came their building in Times Square. In 2000, the XFL had begun. It was around this time that the powerhouse of a business began to acquire big names from other companies, including Big Show, Jericho, Beniot, and the late Eddie Guerrero. These deals, and others, forced WCW to close it's doors in 2001, which was also the year of WrestleMania 17, the year when many believe to be the moment when the attitude era was gone. But what does this have to do with the present times? Well, I think there's going to be an inverse of a pattern. Could Owen's death have caused the end of the Attitude Era? It's hard to know. But what's easy to know is that currently, we're facing a similar situation. Another star has left us, and it's unlikely that his untimely death will just sell T-shirts. The old school is back. You may not think it is, but the future of the WWE is the way it used to be. Think about everyone who has come into the WWE in recent memory. Hassan and Daivari, the angry Arab-Americans who will make you tap with, what else, the camel clutch. Chris Masters, the self-centered, dominating up-and-comer, with a feared Masterlock. Carlito, small but talented, who seems to win only by cheating. The Boogeyman, a demonic lunatic who will do anything except the expected. We've seen all of these before, in one form or another, and I think that the WWE will go back to it's roots. Let's look at the moves these new superstars use (or used to use). The Camel Clutch, The Full Nelson, Cheating, the Pumphandle Slam. For some, these are probably regular moves, maybe even ridiculous; but think back. Think Iron Sheik, think Tony Atlas, think Ric Flair. With so many high impact, crowd-pleasing finishers in recent memory- the stunner, the rock bottom/people's elbow, the chokeslam- it's nice to see the news guys bring it back to the beginning. Besides, Bret Hart had a sharpshooter as his finisher, and nobody whined then. Owen's death could have possibly set in motion the end of the Attitude Era. Perhaps, out of the ashes of Eddie Guerrero, wrestling will enter a new golden age.

Rene Dupree - by Bobby Bristow For about five years now, I've been a wrestling fan. The industry has had its ups and downs during that time but it seems to be on a bit of an up at the moment and smarks and marks are both getting excited about several things in wrestling. The X Division, SD!'s Tag Team Division and of course the new potential Monday Night Wars between the WWE and TNA. But one thing the WWE seems to be lacking right now is new young faces and RAW's Tag division needs a little boost. RAW has a decent Tag Division but lack of T.V exposure has put it on the shelf. Kane and Big Show have chemistry but they are another short dominant team unlikely to have another reign when they loose the straps. Cade and Murdoch go well together but Murdoch lacks some technical ability. V-Squared are possibly making up for the comedy the Superheroes had but the idea is great. A huge love machine and an ex-pornstar, that just might work. Snitsky and Tomko might get over as a powerhouse team and of course The Hearthrobs these guys have been friends for years and have that great in ring chemistry. So how do you ask does the WWE kill these two birds with one stone? The answer is Rene Dupree. --- To start off, Dupree is at home in the Tag Team division. He has won both RAW and SD! straps with Sylvain Grenair and Kenzo Suzuki respectively. He is also very young. He may be a two year veteran of the WWE but he is only 21 (22 in a few days). But he needs to lose the French heel gimmick it has run its course. He would come out on RAW without the stupid ring attire and facial hair and preach about "bridging the gap between the U.S and France" he would then be attacked by the gimmick-less duo Snitsky and Tomko. He would get beat down until some young OVW starlet runs down and save Dupree from a merciless beating. They would start teaming and give some more respect to a fatigued Tag Team Division.

ROH MADE ME A FAN AGAIN!!! - By Orlando O'Neill Hello, I'm 16 years old n I've been watching wrestling for almost 14 years. In, the past couple of years since the demise of WCW and ECW, there hasn't really been any other promotion that has caught my eye. I"ve tried to watch WWE, but I can't stand the long and lagging promos and horrible writing. Seriously, if i wanted to watch soup operas I would stay home during the day and watch All My Children, but its too bad that the WWE is turning into that. I started to watch NWA TNA when they held thier weekly ppv's, but it's hard for me to watch Jeff Jarret every week come out on top. Im a huge fan of the X Division, and other talent in the company such as AMW, Abyss, Team Canada, etc. Theres one promotion for me that stands out over the rest tho and thats RING OF HONOR. I found one of their first dvds in a FYE. Out of curiosity I bought it, and after I saw Low Ki vs American Dragon, I was hooked. I went to thier website, looked at thier history and did all my research on the company, and from that point I decided ROH is what wrestling should be. If only Bret Hart and Dynamite Kid were in thier primes now, because they would fit perfectly in an ROH ring. If you want to see, great technical wrestling, great ariel wrestling, special attractions from all over the world, I'm telling you now there is wrestling out there and its called RING OF HONOR!

Saturday Night's Main Event - by Scott Binns If you have read wwe.com lately, you'll have noticed that the old bread and butter, the first "flagship" show of WWE, "Saturday Night's Main Event" has been scheduled to return to NBC in March of next year. This program usually took the place of "Saturday Night Live" in the 10:30 eastern time-slot every two or three months. These were the telecasts when the WWF shined the brightest. It was THE show if you were a WWF fan during the mid to late 1980's. During the duration of these telecasts, we witnessed King Kong Bundy crushing Hulk Hogan's ribs over and over again with splash after splash while Don Muraco and Bobby Heenan got their licks in, too, merely weeks before Hogan was to defend the World title against Bundy at Wrestlemania 2. Or how about the birth and death of The Megapowers, before their feud culminated at Wrestlemania 5. Of course there was the ultimate double-cross (before 11/09/97, that is) where we witnessed the twin referees scandal that cost Hogan to lose the WWF title to Andre the Giant, only to have him surrender the title to "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. The title was sub sequentially stripped from DiBiase since according to WWF president at the time, Jack Tunney, ruled the WWE title could not change hands via it being surrendered from one wrestler to another. This heavyweight title vacancy resulted in the first ever single-elimination tournament for the undisputed WWF championship. I still remember being shocked at the conclusion of that match. There are way too many memories of this show to list. Suffice to say, this was the RAW of its day, but better. The classic Hulk Hogan-"Mean" Gene Okerlund interviews, the unbeatable repertoire of Gorilla Monsoon and Jessie "The Body" Ventura, nothing will beat it in terms of cherished WWF memories, short of Wrestlemania ones from the same era. Does anyone remember the marriage of Uncle Elmer or the beat down of my boy "Macho Man " Randy Savage courageously defeating The Honky-Tonk Man via disqualification after (thanks to The Hart Foundation) Macho Man's ankle was almost destroyed and he was ever so close to regaining the Intercontinental championship, until Bret Hart jumped in and saved Honky-Tonk's title. Then The Honky-Tonk Man did something that made him hated by wrestling fans all over the world. He shoved the sweet, lovely Miss Elizabeth to the canvas. He has still not been forgiven for this. My point is before I go on ranting forever is that "Saturday Night's Main Event" changed the way I viewed the WWF, for better or for worse (like the introduction to nation-wide audiences of Zeus, Hulk Hogan's arch-nemesis from the movie, "No Holds Barred". That was...to this day I still don't know what that was.) Hopefully it will do the same into the 2000-teens. It just can't resemble RAW or SMACKDOWN! in the slightest.

The Warrior Has Spoken! - by Adam Heap Greetings OWW fans. Just here to put in my contribution to the FanJam. I defended Batista as a champion in one of my earlier articles, and I guess I'm here in the FanJam to defend John Cena. You may complain about him on the internet, but do you know why the WWE keeps him in the Main Event picture? Because he draws crowds. Hard enough as it may seem to believe, Cena is liked by the fans. At least in the crowds, anyway. He is just starting to get booed in those crowds, but the WWE will realise that in time. In my view, the perfect thing for him to do would be to lose the title to Angle (although that doesn't seem likely now) and chase Angle for it until New Years Revolution, where HHH could win it in an Elimination Chamber match and then Cena win it back at WM 22. After that, he could hold it briefly before HHH wins it again at Backlash and then he could drop out of the title picture.

The Horror that is "New School" - by Carl Catania Does anyone else but me notice that wrestling is taking a huge nosedive into obscurity? Does it bother anyone that wrestling is no longer called wrestling, but sports entertainment? Does anyone mind that the owner of a wrestling company just waltzes down to the ring whenever he likes and basically hi-jacks the show? What happened to wrestling? The most frightening aspect of all written above is that there are people out there who actually don't mind these things. They think Vince getting up into the ring for 20 minutes plus is a good thing. They think great wrestlers who are forced to wrestle for 5 minutes, instead of putting on grade A quality matches is a good thing. They think punching is a skill and using a chair is an artform. These people make me sick. Why is wrestling being flushed down the toilet? Answer: because "New School" fans that have no idea of history or quality, throw down their money and allow themselves to be dumbed down by nonsense. I'm not going to say that I don't watch wrestling these days. If I did, I'd be lying. I tune in week after week, waiting to see if some actual wrestling will sneak its way past the crap filter. I'm still being optimistic that wrestling will actually come back and these garbage storylines will just disappear like magic. I'm a dreamer. I know this. As I watch, I think about the old days with the Horsemen, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, The British Bulldogs, Bret Hart, and a whole host of others who actually wrestled. The curse of "New School" is like a bad dream. I hope it ends soon enough.

Billy Goats Gruff: Tyson Tomko & Gene Snitsky - by David Drews ( D'2 ) These two are very similar. They both are big, power-house type wrestlers. They both have very similar looks and attitudes. And for the past 5 months, neither has had a gimmick. So a few weeks ago WWE did the most logical thing, make them a tag team. Why did it take them so long to decide this though? I knew the minute Christian left Raw, Tomko would have nothing, and Snitsky hasn't had a gimmick since the baby-killer. These guys should have been teaming together all summer. They should have been right up there in the tag team title hunt. But no, WWE just left them to beat up nobodies on Heat. So now that the WWE has come to there senses and teamed them together, what do they do? On their Raw debut, they get destroyed by Kane and Big Show. Tomko and Snitsky should be portrayed as an evil, dominant tag team team. Not a team for the champions to squash. With Raw's tag team division so weak, I hope the WWE won't screw up this great opportunity to make it respectable again.

The Good, The Black, the Held Back by Melissa Bryant Let me say, first, that I am African American, and I have been watching wrestling for twenty-one years. There is definitely a problem with the lack of black world champions. I love Booker's work. I also think Shelton is phenomenal. Sure, they have their weaknesses, but what caucasion wrestler doesn't? I think Randy lacks some in-ring skills, but that did not stop him. Look at Hulk! No wrestling skills at all, just pure character. Now, I know that sells, but I wonder if Benjamin really does have the mic skill, but isn't allowed to express it. HHH has one of the strongest characters and great mic skills, but also seems to lack in ring ability(yeah I said it). But he's been champ 10 times? Ten times?!! I do believe Booker would be a great SD champ. I do believe that shelton would make a great raw champ. I won't make excuses as to why they can't be because there are no negative things I can say about them that can't be said about other past non-black multiple time WWE champions!